Two ships currently in Winter Quarters Bay, McMurdo.

The annual fueling ship along with the Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel. That's the new ice pier that I made several postings on last winter from McMurdo.

US Post Office’s Southernmost Branch at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

BY DAVID LEVEILLE ⋅ FEBRUARY 6, 2013 ⋅ POST A COMMENT

Through sleet and snow, rain and ice, we deliver the Geo Quiz.

The US Postal Service has announced it plans to stop delivering mail on Saturdays. The financially struggling agency says the move could help it save as much as $2 billion a year.

But it could delay letters a bit. Of course that delay might not matter all that much if you’re sending a letter to one of the country’s most remote neighborhoods: for instance, the South Pole.

Yes, there is a US Post office at the South Pole. It’s located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Letters sent there go by way of New Zealand where they’re loaded onto US military cargo planes bound for Antarctica.

And believe it or not, the place has its own zip code.

For Wednesday’s Geo Quiz, what’s the zip code for the South Pole?

The zip code we’re looking for is not 90210.

That of course is reserved for ritzy Beverly Hills.

Nor is it 12345 which belongs to General Electric, in Schenectady, New York.

Then there’s ours here at The World newsroom in Boston, 02135.

Nope, the one we’re looking for is at 90-degrees latitude South, at the southernmost post office in the world.

The zip code for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is an undistinguished 96598.

Duffel bags of letters to 96598 travel to the South Pole via

New Zealand

on US military cargo planes usually stuffed in between scientific gear and vital supplies.

Of course deliveries can be unpredictable. Depending on the weather and logistics, packages can take up to six weeks. We haven’t heard yet on whether the ending of Saturday deliveries will be enforced at the South Pole.

One more thing.

Do not use foam peanuts. Styrofoam is banned on the frozen continent.

These two planes left recently. The DeHavilland Twin Otter in the foreground returned to Calgary, Canada - a long trip for a plane with a top speed of 160 knots and an unpressurized cabin. The range is 9 hours at 120 knots and it takes four days. But what an adventurous trip - fly from South Pole to the Antarctic Peninsula then across the Drake Passage, then up South and North America. This plane will then be put into North Pole service.

A cool looking British plane. This Twin Otter just left too. They spend a more leisurely time of 12 days to fly north of Calgary.

What an adventure - flying from the South Pole to Canada!

Flying under 10,000 feet gives quite the world view.

Huge sledges.

The world's most southern airport - NPX. I wonder if there were an airport at the North Pole if the designation would be SPX. I don't know what the FAA was thinking.

On my return from the radomes this afternoon my goggles fogged so I lifted them just enough to see. Once back at the station I saw that the exhaust fan on top had frozen solid even though I had the fan on the high setting. Um - that's cold!